5 Reasons to Use Youth Curriculum

Time. Don’t think of curriculum as cutting corners. Think of it as being a good steward of your time. Curriculum will often provide you with a lesson plan to eliminate time in planning out each individual lesson topic. Also, curriculum speeds up the lesson prep process, without sacrificing the depth of the material.

More Depth. Speaking of depth, I have found using curriculum allows my teaching to be even more in depth. With the extra time and often discussion questions already built-in, I am able to do additional research and provide a more in-depth learning experience than I could have without the use of curriculum.

People Are Smarter Than You. It’s true; there are people that are smarter than you. First step is admitting it. The second step is allowing other people’s work and study to benefit your teaching. Curriculum provides additional insight that you may not have come up with on your own.

Creativity. If you are youth pastor, youth leader, or work with youth, chances are you are creative. But with curriculum, you can be even more creative. Good curriculum gives you various options for opening illustration, lesson options, and closing takeaways. Teens desire hands-on, interactive, visual and aesthetic learning. Curriculum provides you with additional and creative options to provide a greater learning experience for your students.

Variety. Curriculum provides variety. Some curriculum is DVD-based, some uses video intros, and some is more interactive teaching. With each curriculum comes variety. If it was up to you, chances are you will most likely end up teaching to your strengths and according to your methods. Variety provides an excitement for each series, and you know what they say “variety is very spicy”…I think that’s what they say, something like that.

So what about you? Why do you use or not use curriculum? Feel free to comment below.

Stay tuned for next week, where I will reveal some of my favorite curriculum that I have used in the past, and will look forward to your comments on what curriculum you have used as well.

3 thoughts on “5 Reasons to Use Youth Curriculum”

I am so very eclectic. Sometimes we use “curriculum”, sometimes we do not. By curriculum I mean something that is already done for us, 100%. My kids really like variety and they really thrive in a hands on environment. Once we tried a computer screen curriculum, that was a disaster! I shared my thoughts here on that one. http://wp.me/p57CCE-6D All in all I am the first to admit I am not the smartest woman on this planet, that is why I am drawn towards the CM theory, using “living books” to teach a lot of what we do. That is after all what it is all about, reading and learning from experts who truly enjoy their passions rather than dry textbooks…however, I have my fair share of textbooks we reference as well. See? Eclectic. If it works we use it, if it doesn’t we toss it. So, ya, I guess in the sense that I am not an “unschooler” exactly I do use curriculum…just not a boxed one. Love your post, thanks!